So much to do. So little time

So much to do. So little time.

Trump sure has been busy shaking things up both domestically and abroad. But there is so much to do and so little time. He is cracking eggs. Trump is an outsider. He is not the cautious politician or diplomat afraid to bruise feelings. Rather he is the opposite. He detests the status quo. He sees rot in the complacency and complicity of politics. He thinks out the box.

He has threatened our allies with tariffs shaking up the staid world of polite diplomacy. In fact it is difficult trying to find a country he has not threatened – maybe Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. He referred to Canada as the 51^st state although I for one don’t want them. He threatens to have the military seize the Panama Canal. Want to bet that the Panamanians won’t eventually give Trump whatever he wants in order to keep the canal? 

What career politician or diplomat would have come up with the idea of the US taking over Gaza, evicting the Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries and making Gaza the Riviera of the Middle East? The sheer audacity of the plan is stunning and completely off the wall. There is zero support for the idea in the Arab world. But some Israelis like the idea. Since Trump broached the idea during a meeting with Netanyahu I presume that he favors it too. First it would remove a swath of people who hate Isreal from its doorstep. Second, it would force its Arabs neighbors to have to deal with the Palestinians. Third, it would end the push for a two-state solution. Yes there is opposition but Trump doesn’t care. Forced expulsion of the Palestinians would be decried as ethnic cleansing. But Trump doesn’t care. It will be interesting what he suggests next. I am waiting for him to make some off-the-wall comment about ending the war in Ukraine. Given Ukraine’s wealth, I doubt if he will abandon the country and let NATO handle the problem alone. Don’t be shocked if he comes up with some crazy idea or just tell Putin to get lost.

Domestically, Trump sees the bureaucratic rot in the Federal government. The deep state resists change and is virtually all in the democratic camp. A poll revealed that most of the government would try to resist Trump’s policies. So it is no surprise that he and his appointees are moving quickly to purge the government of as many of the resistance as possible. They have fired vast swaths of officials at the FBI and HHS. They have offered an early out to government employees and more than 40,000 have agreed to leave. The government unions sued Trump successfully to slow down the exit process. But the process will continue albeit a bit slower due to the court order. At issue is whether the buyout order is legal. If it is not legal, then Trump will likely just resort to firing everyone and testing the legality of that action. Speaking of firing, one of the members of the Labor Relations Board is telling Trump to pound sand. Gwynne Wilcox was appointed by Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a term ending in 2028. Trump fired her. She is suing saying that the law states that she can only be fired for neglect or malfeasance. Watch this case carefully because if the courts uphold her firing then Trump might be emboldened to try to go after bigger fish. Did I hear anyone say Jay Powell?

Over at “Justice”, new AG Bondi is firing all those associated with the anti-Trump weaponization of the department under Garland. Thirty attorneys have already been terminated. I don’t know if I support this particular action. Those attorneys were doing their job as prescribed by their bosses. Isn’t that what attorneys do? I hope that Bondi interviewed them before their firing. HHS is rumored to be firing “thousands” of employees. Of course 80,000 people work for the agency. In fact, I think Trump or his peeps read my blog. Recall that I suggested that Trump instruct all the agencies to trim their workforce by a certain percent at each budget cycle. Five percent is not a bad number to start.

Then there is the mess at Education with the trans and DEI mandates. The mess at Energy with the natural gas moratorium. The mess at Interior with all the no drill policies off shore, in the Artic and on Federal lands. The mess at the Pentagon which turned into a social agency rather than a lethal force under Biden. The mess at the FAA of their policy of discouraging applications from whites to favor the placement of minorities. This is an awful scandal and prompts all the haters to question whether any minority hired during the Biden years in any position would be employed otherwise. What a bunch of messes. I wonder if there is any part of the federal government that isn’t a mess?

All the while the democrats are flailing in the wind protesting and voting against every Trump nominee. They have put a temporary hold on Kash Patel for the FBI. Patel scares the blazes out of them. They have resorted to yelling at the nominees at the confirmation hearings and trying to berate them – to no avail. Their latest embarrassing maneuver was to have every democrat senator issue a protest during the vote for Russ Vought’s confirmation as budget director. BTW, one of my Georgia classmates Jim Miller was Reagan’s budget chief. Ed Markey, for example said “For clean air and clean water I vote no.” Blumenthal said “For our veterans I vote no.” When has Blumenthal ever favored veterans? Elizabeth Warren shouted “BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!” After each vote, the presiding officer said to no avail “Pursuant to rule 12, no debate is permitted during a vote.” The dems were upset that during the first Trump administration Vought was the one who suggested using Schedule F to fire 50,000 federal employees. Vought was confirmed 53-47.

Go get ‘em Donald! So much to do. So much rot. So little time.